Normally I cringe at doomsday preppers but given how many dictators out there love the idea to cut their country off Internet whenever anything starts going not in their favor, I imagine a lot of people may find this useful.

I wouldn’t want to lose access to knowledge how to fix a sink or which medication is better, just because the local kingface currently feels that free exchange of opinions about him threatens his kingship.

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iugtmkbdfil834 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I am not a prepper, but I always found immediate dismissal of their stance odd. If you see clouds on the horizon, reasonable people start preparing. Some preparations take longer than others so longer than others. And this does not account for the fact that one the steady lull ( in US and most of Europe ) of the past 70 or so years is not the norm in our world.

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jmuguy an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Well usually when people refer to someone as a prepper its the specific type of person that is buying hundreds of guns, tons of dehydrated meals but still living on city water - like they're preparing for a disaster movie but not anything real. Specifically the idea that you would be able to stay in place, with all your hoarded disaster crap, during the end of the world is kind of funny.

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coldtea an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The kind of prepping in "prepper" culture though is bullshit. People living and having actual experience in such dangerous places don't prep like that.

	▲	kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 34 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		But I bet they would've loved the opportunity to do so before it all went sideways.

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colechristensen an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean preppers are mostly cosplayers and I don't criticize people who go to comicon either. If you're not hurting anyone there's nothing wrong with having an unrealistic hobby or one without a lot of practical utility (even if the premise of the hobby is having practical utility).

But the western Roman empire fell and cities depopulated and folks switched back to subsistence farming for hundreds of years.

And plenty of places have been at war and had much of civilization's usefulness diminished from days to decades. Not to mention straightforward natural disasters.

My prepping is limited to buying toilet paper at costco and having bags of beans and rice and such in my pantry and just... knowing how to do things in general.

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brightball an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Stuff like this is why I keep a small library at my house.

Full encyclopedia set, Merck Manual, home repair book, etc. May never use them, but I like having them.

Facebook ads even successfully targeted me for that “how to rebuild all of civilization” book. :)

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kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 28 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

You should get a copy or three of Pocket Ref by Thomas J Glover. Packed full of useful things in a good size. I keep one in the car even.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_Ref

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nojvek an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Is there a serious “rebuild all of civilization” book?

Sounds like a good read.

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brightball 3 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Yes.

https://a.co/d/0ieNUmhB (Not a referral link)

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coldtea 44 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

In a doomsday scenario one wouldn't need a "rebuild all of civilization" book, but more a "basics like building a fire, filtering water, repairing a car engine, basic wound treatment" and such book. Nobody is going to be building cathedrals, and factories and computers for a good while...

	▲	fer 4 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Nobody is going to be building cathedrals, and factories and computers for a good while... Interesting mental exercise. It was explored in A Canticle for Leibowitz[0], novel in 3 parts (Fiat homo, fiat lux, fiat voluntas tua), the first set in the immediate post nuclear-war world, second 600 years after towards the end of the new middle ages, and the third 600 later in a typical futuristic scenario. The first part covers the religious efforts to preserve knowledge (even if said knowledge was not understood), and the second in the new renaissance from wielding such knowledge. I wonder how LLMs, with their mistakes and all, would play a role in rebuilding civilization. Most media these days is not prepared for staying stable for 20 years, not sure how much and for how long it could be preserved. Perhaps mechanical hard drives in certain isolated environments? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz
	▲	kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 26 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		And we did it all without a manual the first time, so it stands to reason we (or more accurately, our descendants) could figure it out.